NetBSD/distrib/notes/i386/xfer

	$NetBSD: xfer,v 1.14 1998/01/09 18:46:36 perry Exp $	

Installation is supported from several media types, including:

	FTP
	Remote NFS partition
	DOS floppies

No matter which installation medium you choose, you'll need to have a
floppy disk (either 1.2M or 1.44M will work).  You'll put the boot
floppy image ("boot.fs" for 1.44M floppies, "boot-small.fs" for 1.2M
floppies) onto this disk, which contains software to install or
upgrade your NetBSD system.

[Note: previous versions of NetBSD used several floppy images,
including several kernel/boot floppies depending on hardware
configuration, an install floppy, and an upgrade floppy. NetBSD _VER
only requires a single floppy for all tasks.]

If you are using a UN*X-like system to write the floppy images to
disks, you should use the "dd" command to copy the file system image
(.fs file) directly to the raw floppy disk.  It is suggested that you
read the dd(1) manual page or ask your system administrator to
determine the correct set of arguments to use; it will be slightly
different from system to system, and a comprehensive list of the
possibilities is beyond the scope of this document.

If you are using DOS to write the floppy image to disk, you should
use the "rawrite" utility, provided in the "i386/utilities" directory
of the NetBSD distribution.  It will write the file system image (.fs
file) to disks.

Note that, when installing or upgrading, the floppy can be
write-protected if you wish. These systems mount ramdisks as their
root file systems once booted, and will not need to write to the
floppy itself at any time -- indeed, once booted, the floppy may be
removed from the disk drive.

Obviously, the steps necessary to prepare the distribution sets for
installation or upgrade depend on which installation medium you
choose.  The steps for the various media are outlined below.

To install or upgrade NetBSD using DOS floppies, you need to do the
following:

	Count the number of "set_name.xx" files that make up the
	distribution sets you want to install or upgrade.  You will
	need one fifth that number of 1.2M floppies, or one sixth that
	number of 1.44M floppies.  You should only use one size of
	floppy for the install or upgrade procedure; you can't use
	some 1.2M floppies and some 1.44M floppies.

	Format all of the floppies with DOS.  DO NOT make any of them
	bootable DOS floppies, i.e. don't use "format/s" to format
	them.  (If the floppies are bootable, then the DOS system
	files that make them bootable will take up some space, and you
	won't be able to fit as many distribution set parts per disk.)
	If you're using floppies that are formatted for DOS by their
	manufacturers, they probably aren't bootable, and you can use
	them out of the box.

	Place all of the "set_name.xx" files on the DOS disks, five
	per disk if you're using 1.2M disks, six per disk if you're
	using 1.44M disks.  How you do this is up to you; there are
	many possibilities.  You could, for instance, use a DOS
	terminal program to download them on to the floppies, or use
	a UN*X-like system capable of reading and writing DOS file
	systems (either with "mtools" or a real DOS file system)
	to place them on the disk.

	Once you have the files on DOS disks, you can start the
	actual installation or upgrade process.

To install or upgrade NetBSD using NFS, you must do the following:

	Place the NetBSD distribution sets you wish to install into a
	directory on an NFS server, and make that directory mountable
	by the machine on which you are installing or upgrading NetBSD.
	This will probably require modifying the /etc/exports file on
	of the NFS server and resetting its mount daemon (mountd).
	(Both of these actions will probably require superuser
	privileges on the server.)

	You need to know the the numeric IP address of the NFS server,
	and, if the server is not on a network directly connected to
	the machine on which you're installing or upgrading NetBSD,
	you need to know the numeric IP address of the router closest
	to the NetBSD machine.  Finally, you need to know the numeric
	IP address of the NetBSD machine itself. The install
	program will ask you to provide this information to be able
	to access the sets.

	Once the NFS server is set up properly and you have the
	information mentioned above, you can start the actual
	installation or upgrade process.

To install or upgrade NetBSD by using FTP to get the installation
sets, you must do the following:

	The preparations for this installation/upgrade method are
	easy; all you make sure that there's some FTP site from which
	you can retrieve the NetBSD distribution when you're about to
	install or upgrade.  You need to know the numeric IP address
	of that site, and, if it's not on a network directly connected
	to the machine on which you're installing or upgrading NetBSD,
	you need to know the numeric IP address of the router closest
	to the NetBSD machine.  Finally, you need to know the numeric
	IP address of the NetBSD machine itself. The install program
	will ask you to provide this information to be able to access
	the sets via ftp.

	Once you have this information, you can proceed to the actual
	installation or upgrade.

If you are upgrading NetBSD, you also have the option of installing
NetBSD by putting the new distribution sets somewhere in your existing
file system, and using them from there.  To do that, you must do the
following:

        Place the distribution sets you wish to upgrade somewhere in
        your current file system tree. Please note that the /dev on
        the floppy used for upgrades only knows about wd0, wd1, sd0,
        sd1 and sd2. If you have more than two IDE drives or more than
        three SCSI drives, you should take care not to place the sets
        on the high numbered drives.

        At a bare minimum, you must upgrade the "base" and "kern"
        binary distribution, and so must put the "base" and
        "kern" sets somewhere in your file system.  If you wish,
        you can do the other sets, as well, but you should NOT upgrade
        the "etc" distribution; the "etc" distribution contains system
        configuration files that you should review and update by hand.

	Once you have done this, you can proceed to the next step in
	the upgrade process, actually upgrading your system.